While many various types of sports wear are presently available, one of the most common forms of sports wear is the golf shirt also known as a polo shirt or tennis shirt. A golf shirt typically is defined as a pullover sport shirt of preferably knitted cotton, or other similar material, generally having short sleeves and designed for comfort and casual wear.
The golf shirt may be made in several colors and patterns. Wide or narrow horizontal stripes are common, as are solid color shirts. Due to the outdoor nature of the sport they are associated with, the shirts are often in colors associated with nature, such as brown, dark blue, green, and orange, however, the shirts are not limited to these colors. Golf shirt fabrics can be manufactured from a fabric weight with little more weight than T-shirt fabric to fabrics that are quite thick and substantial for heavy wear.
As is implied by its various names, golf, polo, and tennis players wear the golf shirt. This style is also worn by others associated with sports by work, such as athletic coaches, caddies, golf professionals, and sports announcers. It is also a favored shirt for those working outside, such as groundskeepers and construction workers due to its ruggedness and support during physical activities. During the 1990's, the golf shirt became a de-facto standard of informal business attire for the high tech industry.
Although the golf shirt has become a very popular form of attire, the shirt has changed very little since it was originally designed. Some acknowledge that the original design can be traced to a 1929 design by tennis player Rene Lacoste who wanted a thick pique collar that one would wear turned up in order to block the sun from one's neck. However, over the years the shirt has changed very little from its original design.
While generally fit for its intended purpose, the golf shirt in its present form does have its drawbacks. For one, the shirt 20 (FIG. 1) which when used in sports is generally intended to be tucked into pants 22, such as shorts or slacks, but the shirt 20 has a tendency to pull out of the pants when the wearer is using large arm movements or twisting one's body such as in a golf swing. This problem also occurs with wearers that have a body type with a long back. One solution to this problem to prevent full removal of the shirt 20 from the pants 22 has been to cut the golf shirt's cloth so that the fabric in back forms a tail that hangs a few centimeters lower than in the front. This solution, while helping to avoid the full removal of the shirt from the pants, does not avoid fabric removed from the pants to form folds 24 or bunch-up and pullout along the waistline of the wearer above the belt line of the pants 22. This can cause the wearer to take on a disheveled or unkempt appearance.
In addition, the nature of the shirt fabric, designed for comfort and casual wear, takes on a form fitting appearance that outlines the body of the wearer. While adequate for those individuals in fit or good athletic shape, the shirt can have a negative effect on the appearance of individuals 26 (FIG. 2) with excess weight in the abdominal region 28. In such instances the shirt actually can accentuate or draw attention to one's weight or excess girth in this region.
Thus, the need exists for a way to provide a golf shirt that retains all of the design benefits for comfort and casual wear while correcting the problems with appearance that have been identified above.